Mexico City feral dog killings open debate

ASSOCIATED PRESS

January 9, 2013 12:01 AM

A policeman practices lassoing in anticipation of roping a stray dog, as he and fellow officers search for strays in a park on the hilltop borough of Iztapalapa in southeast Mexico City. Tuesday, Jan. 8, 2013. The fatal mauling of four people by feral dogs in a Mexico City park set off debate Tuesday about the city's love/hate relationship with its dog population, and the guilt or innocence of 25 dogs trapped near the scene of the nightmarish killings. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)AP

ASSOCIATED PRESS

January 9, 2013 12:01 AM

MEXICO CITY -- The fatal mauling of four people by feral dogs in a Mexico City park set off debate Tuesday about the city's love/hate relationship with its dog population, and the guilt or innocence of 25 animals trapped near the scene of the nightmarish killings.

Mexico City's mayor said the government will launch a program to spay and neuter the hundreds of thousands of dogs that wander the city, sending 25 mobile surgical units to neighborhoods where residents will be encouraged to take advantage of free sterilization for their pets. Animal advocates called for Mexico City residents to rethink a pet-owning culture that often treats dogs as disposable, saying the police failed to enforce a ban on sales of puppies and kittens in the streets.

Police photos of the forlorn, skinny strays captured in the wooded, hilltop park where a woman, her baby and a teenage couple were killed in two separate incidents set off an online campaign protesting their innocence and calling for authorities not to euthanize them.

Antemio Maya, president of the Street Dog Protection association, said there are no reliable figures for the number of street dogs in Mexico City. He said estimates for the overall number of dogs in the city of nearly 9 million people range from 1.2 million to 3 million animals.

Neighbors of the Cerro de la Estrella, a partly wooded hilltop park surrounded by Iztapalapa, found the bodies of a 26-year-old woman and a 1-year-old child in the area on Dec. 29, authorities in Mexico's capital said.

Then on Saturday visitors to the same park found the bodies of Alejandra Ruiz, 15, and her boyfriend Samuel Martinez, 16.

Mexico City prosecutors said that autopsies determined that all of the victims had died of dog bites, and that they believed at least 10 dogs were involved in each attack.